Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond

From caverns miles beneath the New Mexico desert, the D’ni ruled an empire that lasted ten millennia. They wrote Linking Books that allowed them to span universes, ignoring the primitive humans that infested the surface. But the glory of D’ni was brought low mere centuries ago, and their Ages were left empty and abandoned... until now.

Called to the desert, we have found our way down to D’ni. Its secrets are in our hands, and its future is ours to determine. The next chapter of D’ni is Unwritten.

In 1994 Cyan introduced us to the surreal worlds of MYST™ and the D’ni. Now you can make your own journeys of exploration and adventure through the Ages.

Discovery Focused Mechanics

Play in Modern or Historical D’ni

Unlimited Possible Environments

Unwritten is developed by InkWorks Productions, under a licensing agreement with Cyan, Inc.

Odd. There must have been a change to this listing because I did buy the .pdf and reviewed it, but now I'm no longer shown as a buyer and my review is gone. If I search under my name and get all the reviews I've penned, the product is "no longer available".

If it helps, the copied text of my review is below:

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As is well-known, MYST is a ground-breaking series of computer games which began in 1993, focused on exploration, atmosphere and puzzle-solving. There was almost no violence (except for a truly memorable turn by actor Brad Dourif as Saavedro in MYST Exile!) I would have been in the market for a MYST worldbook or compendium, and it was by chance I heard that a tabletop RPG had been made for it.

The rulebook starts off with 30 pages or so of typed and handwritten background letters for flavour, and that is my one reservation about the game. Using that for an introduction sort of clutters the beginning of the book. Fortunately, the base...See more font of the .pdf made no attempt to be atmospheric or otherworldly, just a straight font to help me get through most of this massive but well spaced-out 338-page book (in a digest-sized format comparable to the size of the Fate Core rulebook).

The game is based on Fate Core rules and, in order to be a stand-alone game, presents all the rules and Fate Core concepts adequately. The story-focused mechanics works well with the atmospheric setting of MYST focussing on character and interaction with people and environments. The Fate Core Skill list has been modified, with Skills such as Experiment, Research, Engineering (the Crafting of more complex machines) and Surveying appearing. The Actions have been significantly modified: Overcome, [create or take] Advantage, Discover, and Active or Passive Opposition as needed, with no Attack or Defend Actions as such. But if you truly want gritty Age Wars with invading Disco Dwarves from Dimension X (hello, Teenagers from Outer Space!) with depleted-uranium morningstars, and you must stop them with monomolecular slashwire nunchucks, Fate Core will let you do so. It could be just me...

The heart of Myst is its puzzles, and there is concise information on how to set up machine-like puzzles and how characters uncover the history of an Age (a pocket-universe or dimension). The game master need not have to sweat out having to do original puzzles if that is not their inclination. A puzzle can be handled as an abstraction to discover and overcome according to the Unwritten rules.

There is considerable information on the history of D'ni, laid out in chronological order, and the new wave of humans who have found the entry-point to the abandoned D'ni cavern under the New Mexico desert and are occupying the abandoned D'ni city, trying to recover the lost D'ni arts of travelling with Linking Books. Some are just day-trippers, maintaining a day-job on the surface, others are hardcore people occupying the city and even adopting D'ni clothes and mannerisms. Factions are developing among the humans, arguing about how to handle these discoveries.

There is little information about Ages set in the computer games (another supplement, maybe?). [A supplement was released. --Pierre S.] Atmospheric artwork throughout reinforces the game. Overall, a beautiful tome to complement your experience of the MYST computer games, and careful study will reward you with rich role-playing sessions.
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Charlene HNovember 07, 2016 11:22 pm UTC

PURCHASER

It looks like when we bundled the PDF & the new premium softcover together, it removed reviews that were attached the now unavailable standard softcover. I'm looking into it. Thank you for reposting your review!

Pierre SApril 18, 2016 4:14 pm UTC

...also, some games list their .pdf and hardcopy (softcover) on the same page for ordering. You might want to ask if that is possible.

Pierre SApril 18, 2016 4:02 pm UTC

You may want to write an entry for this game in Wikipedia. I attempted to insert a mention on the entry for Myst, but I was nixed by the admin because I could not find a definite Web-page from Cyan where they said this RPG was authorized or approved in any way.

Myst fans need to know a tabletop RPG exists for it, that is authorized or approved or allowed or whatever the exact term should be!

Pierre SJune 02, 2017 3:02 pm UTC

The Unwritten RPG is now given a mention on the Myst (series) page of Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst_(series)#Adaptations

Michael SDecember 30, 2015 1:52 am UTC

Is there a chance this will be released in hardcover?

John W, if you haven't already noticed it, the PDF is available as a "pay what you want."

Charlene HDecember 31, 2015 10:06 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Michael,
There was a hardcover edition, but that was made exclusively for our Kickstarter backers.
~Eleri

John WNovember 19, 2015 7:58 am UTC

Is there no PDF version available?

Charlene HDecember 31, 2015 10:07 pm UTC

PURCHASER

John,
The PDF was unavailable for a short time in November, because it was included in the Fate Bundle of Holding fundraiser. It's back now!
~Eleri

This was a generaly good read. The system was a bit hard to understand at times, but it was nice, and easy to understand. It's generally open world, while providing some guidelines for gaming groups. [...]

As is well-known, MYST is a ground-breaking series of computer games which began in 1993, focused on exploration, atmosphere and puzzle-solving. There was almost no violence (except for a truly memorable turn by actor Brad Dourif as Saavedro in MYST Ex [...]

(Note: this is nearly the same review as I gave for the softcover, but omits specifics for a published and bound book, instead talking about the PDF layout.) Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond is a FATE-based RPG that focuses o [...]

Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond is a FATE-based RPG that focuses on solving mysteries, successfully completing puzzles that give you deeper insight into the setting's mythology, and forming powerful relationships to answer truly ep [...]

When thinking of tabletop roleplaying games...Myst is not the first property to spring to mind. Most RPGs are incredibly combat-focused, with only a few notable exceptions. Now Unwritten can join the likes of Golden Sky Stories as a non-combat game. Wi [...]

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